Why Free Email Accounts are Bad for Business

Are you using a free email service such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail? How about one tied to your ISP service such as Verizon.net.

Your free email account may be breaking your email list and is broken if you are using a Yahoo email account in your list settings.

You need to change this practice and brand your email to your domain.

Watch this video for the reason why a free email account isn't a good idea for business.

The Problem using Free Email Accounts

1. Unbranded = Low Trust, Low Recognition

2. Low deliverability rates

3. DMARC (http://dmarc.org/) – Standard for email authentication – set of rules that can cause an ISP to reject an email message.

4. DMARC expects there to be “domain alignment.”

5. Authentication has to be from the same domain (or a sub-domain) as the address in the header-from: line

6. If you use an autoresponder service and have a Yahoo email address in the FROM address, ISPs are going to reject it.

7. Yahoo's new DMARC settings is causing ISPs to reject any Yahoo email adressess in the from: line not sent from a Yahoo server. BOUNCE!

The Fix

This problem is easy to fix. Most hosting service providers offer free email as part of the hosting package. You just need to set up your email account for your domain and use that for your communications. Alternatively, if you use a helpdesk ticket service, you can use that domain. The bottom line: Don't use free email for your business communications.